Growing Vegetables

You can grow potatoes in a bucket very easily (and they are much easier to harvest). Just punch some holes in the bottom of a cheap plastic bucket, fill about 3/4 full with soil or compost and place two or three seed potatoes in each. The general rule is to plant potatoes about twice as deep as the size of the tuber. Protect the buckets from frost and when the first shoots appear, begin adding soil so that the tops are just showing. Keep doing this till the bucket is full. Water regularly and, when the plants begin to flower, feel around their roots for small, new potatoes. You don't have to dig up the plant and, if you are careful, you can harvest the larger tubers and leave the smaller ones to grow on. It is possible to grow carrots and parsnips in deep pots (at least half as deep again, preferably twice the depth you expect the roots to grow to) but, because there is less soil, you have to be very assiduous in watering them. Also, you may get rather fewer to a pot than you may consider worthwhile. Almost any vegetable can be grown in a pot or container but the best are tomatoes, string (runner) beans, peppers, aubergines (egg-plant), salad vegetables - such as lettuce, radish, arugula (rocket), lamb's lettuce, spinach beet - and herbs, including parsley and cilantro. Potatoes, as I say, are successful but it is best to choose a variety which has excellent flavour as a new potato and is hard to find in the shops. There are some excellent varieties which are difficult or uneconomic to grow commercially and which really repay growing in pots. There is really no comparison between new potatoes which are cooked within minutes of being lifted and those which you find in the store.

I do put the seeds i grow in pots that i put some stakes in the put around the plant that starts to grow because i want them to stand up straight and not fall over as the vegetables are growing. I like growing vegetables my self but never have grown carrots or any parsnips. I hope to get to the garden section in a store soon as i would like to start growing some peppers and some new things. I like my garden and i have already gotten some tomatoes this year. I live in Florida and we start sooner than a lot of other people growing there own fresh vegetables. I have learned that some things grow here and some don't. I have had a hard time growing squash but i do keep trying because i seem to buy squash alot and to grow it would be easier than having to buy it all the time. We do put pots on out back porch as well as in the yard to grow vegetables. WHen reading the directions on some of the plants some want full sun and some want partial sun to grow, so reading the directions on the instructions is important to know where to place your pots.

If you have little space, I heard a commercial on the radio about a tomato and I think strawberry plant that grows upside down hanging in your home and produces normal produce.http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-plant-hanging-upsidedown-tomatoes/

Yes, you can grow roots in pots. In fact for competions, parsnips are often grown in pots or even lengths of drainpipe to encourage them to grow long and straight. It's all about soil quality and watering. If you have a large pot, plant something like radishes with the parsnips. Parsnips take a long time to germinate and grow and you'll be eating the radishes before they need the space. If you are low on space then things like beans and peas might be a good idea because they can be trained up a framework. Alternatively, some small fruit bushes or strawberry plants give a good return, as do things like lettuce and other salad crops. Think what is either expensive to buy or that you really enjoy eating. Look up "square foot gardening" which is a system designed for small spaces and successive cropping.